In the late afternoon, Edward went into the forest ready to get his revenge on those teleporting monsters. He was ready and had his strategy planned out. He didn’t go too deep into the forest, both to avoid attracting other monsters, and to avoid losing his sense of direction and getting lost because of the fight. He didn’t hide his aura immediately, he wasn’t fully sure how the monsters detected their prey, but he hope that his aura would linger for some time and attract them. However, he didn't try to boost his aura either, he didn't want to end up exhausted before the fight. As soon as the night fell he retracted his aura and hid under a layer of leaves with a tree behind his back. Then, he waited for one of the monsters to notice the traces of his passage and appear in front of him.

After half an hour, he was starting to get impatient, he had improved his aura control but staying for so long with his aura hidden was starting to tire him. Moreover, it was a long time to stay focused, especially when nothing was happening. I’m beginning to feel sleepy. Not even one monster appeared until now. Am I too close to the edge of the forest? Or they aren’t able to detect me? Edward was doubting himself, and wondering if he should go back to the base. He couldn’t stay focused for the whole night, and it was dangerous to stay half-asleep in the wild where monsters were roaming.

It was at this time that he saw it. One moment there was nothing, and the next it was there as if it had been here the whole time. Standing without a sound, just like a ghost. An electroshock ran through Edward’s body. Now is the time. He tightened his grip on his dagger and pounced on the monster, the leaves were projected in every direction as he left his hideout. Just as he was about to hit it, the monster was gone, and instead, Edward crashed to the ground. What? Shit, it must have detected me and teleported again. Where is it? He quickly focused to sense the aura around him to find that monster. And then he sensed it, it was actually the first time that he actively felt a monster’s aura, it felt out of place. A cold and dark presence among the life aura of the forest, it didn’t belong here.

I found it, it teleported five meters away, in my back, on the left. He turned around to charge at it, but by that time the monster had already left its original position and was standing instead right behind his back. Edward was still monitoring its aura and was only momentary distracted when he saw that the monster wasn’t where he thought he would be. That thing tried to bite him in the neck leaning toward him to do so, but Edward reacted quickly enough and did a front roll to avoid it. As he turned back, he saw the monster straightening back, a black rift closing slowly on its featureless face.

Okaaaay…You keep the first place on the creepiest thing I ever saw. I thought I would be able to take it by surprise, but now we are in a stalemate. How do you hit something that keeps teleporting around you? This is seriously annoying, and dangerous too…I can’t hit it, but it can hit me. I have to bait him, to make an opening, make it believe I did a mistake to force it to attack before striking back.

Edward began to walk in a circle to attack the monster from the side, but of course, the monster didn’t tag along and rather teleported behind him again. Edward quickly turned back making a swipe with his dagger but the monster avoided it, teleporting again a bit further away. Nothing had changed except the speed of the exchange. A few more exchanges followed each time the monster was teleporting to attack, Edward attempting to hit it, and the monster teleporting away to avoid the strike. Making a bait is easier said than done. What I’m supposed to do? That thing is teleporting in my back each time, and by the time I turn around it is already gone. Should I taunt it? Will this thing even be able to understand what I will say?

“Hey, you rotten stick! I bet that you don’t even dare to face me frontally! You are just a coward trying to hit me in the back!” What the heck am I even saying? Will this thing fall for something like that? One would have to be a real moron to attack someone frontally when you have a freaking teleporting power. The monster didn’t display any reactions to Edward’s taunt, as if nothing had happened. Guess it was worth a try. But that makes things more difficult. Once again, the two of them engaged in a fruitless effort to harm the other.

After some time, Edward had another idea. What happens if I turn my back to it, will it face me from the front or the back? With my aura perception, I can sense where this monster is even without looking at it, so it’s okay if I turn my back on it. I’m not even sure that thing can differentiate my back and my front, that freak doesn’t even have eyes. Who knows? It could have developed a habit of teleporting behind its opponent because it was more effective even without understanding why.

Edward turned his back to the monster before it had the chance to attack him. This seemed to confuse the monster, as it stayed immobile for longer than usual, trying to decide what to do in front of this unusual behavior. Edward stayed with his back to the monster waiting with anticipation while monitoring it with his aura senses. In the end, the monster chose to teleport in front of Edward rather than behind him. Edward didn’t miss that golden opportunity and quickly stabbed the monster in the chest with his dagger. It collapsed on its knees, the only thing preventing it from falling entirely was the support of Edward’s dagger.

Edward felt a huge stream of energy going inside him from the dagger. Is the dagger absorbing the blood of this monster? But time is not slowing down like when I managed to stab that abomination in Oshle Tirion. The feeling is closer to the time I absorbed the blood of that dark wolf. Maybe each beast has its particularity and the absorption varies according to the slain beast? Damn, that feels good, warm, and disorientating? Edward felt his perception shift for an instant. Then, the monster disappeared in a cloud of fine particles.

That weapon is damn good, it can absorb the blood of that monster without me having to do anything. I was afraid I would have to bleed that monster and store the blood, but with that dagger, I can absorb it directly, it is much more convenient like that. There is not even a drop of blood left on it, it absorbed everything. I wonder how much a weapon like that costs. I don’t think it is a common sight, otherwise, Marc wouldn’t have been searching for it so desperately. With a weapon like that, it will be a lot easier for me to become stronger. I just have to slay beasts without having to worry about the logistical aspects.

What a night! That makes one less nightmare roaming this forest. Now that I know how those monsters operate it should be a lot easier to kill one the next time. In fact, those monsters are more spooky than dangerous. Yes, they can teleport, which makes them annoying to deal with, but once you have a good aura perception it negates a lot of their teleportation advantage. You can follow them as they teleport and the rest is just a question of speed and tricks.

After this fight, Edward was quickly caught up by exhaustion. He had to maintain focus for the whole fight, to react as fast as possible each time the monster teleported. Now, that the adrenaline was dissipating he was able to feel his fatigue. Time to go back to the base. I earned myself a good night of sleep. I’m happy that all of that aura training finally paid off. I wouldn’t have been able to fight this monster without my aura perception.

Edward went back to his base to have a good rest. When he woke up, he realized that the sun was already high up in the sky, he had slept longer than usual but he deserved it. That fight had been quite short but nonetheless very taxing on him. Edward went to the river to clean himself. That’s strange I feel as if I’m somehow more aware of my surroundings. He picked a pebble and throw it on the surface of the river, it did two ricochets before landing on the other side. I can feel the exact angle at which I am throwing a stone. I was never that good at making ricochets and now I’m making two on the first try. Did that monster increase my space perception somehow? It makes sense in a way, it is able to teleport so its space awareness must have been particularly high. That would also confirm the fact that each monster has its peculiarities. Those in Oshle Tirion make time slower, and the teleporting monsters increase my spatial awareness. It is still incredible that I can absorb a part of their power like that. Back in the village, Balin told me that you could grow stronger by killing monsters and absorbing their blood, but he never told me that you could get their power too.

I should test my physical prowess again to see if it has improved too. Edward immediately propped himself to do a series of push-ups right here without bothering to go back into the ruins. One, two, three…with how many push-ups I am able to do now, I will end up losing count if I continue to grow stronger. He was able to complete a series of 85 push-ups before his arms gave up. That’s five more than yesterday. The increase is quite low compared to the increase provided by the dark wolf, but my space awareness was increased too so I guess it compensates for it. I should go hunt again tonight. I won’t stop when I found such an easy way to get stronger in a world where strength is mandatory to be independent.

Edward got up and went back to the base. He ate his meal and prepare his backpack, he was eager to go fight and absorb the strength of those monsters. They were quite scary but at this moment Edward felt that they wore like a gift delivered to him. As he has nothing much to do but wait, he went back to inspect the different books present in the ruins. Until now he had only opened two, the one with theories about aura, and the one that gave him the aura techniques, however, there were several other books present. He opened one at random glancing at its content, this one was focused on complicated and advanced magic, but he wasn’t able to understand its content. He opened the other books one after the other, but they were all about magic rather than aura. None of them were presenting the basics, they were beginning right at the start with advanced concepts.

Okay, so I have two books about the basics of auras and the rest is all about advanced magic. This race seemed a lot more developed in magic than in auras. If I want to find the basics of magic I will probably have to go back to Oshle Tirion, in the memories of that librarian I saw kids were visiting that library too, they should cover the basis of magic over there. This gives me another reason to go slay all of those beasts. I can’t go as I am now however, I’m still too weak.